HALLINAN: A man at odds with authority

Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Wednesday, December 10, 2003

hallinanvote002_bw.jpg San Francisco district attorney Terrance Hallinan voted downtown Tuesday. He took his daughter Vivian, 10 years, to the polling place. Here the two talked with the press after casting their vote on Jones Street. BRANT WARD / The Chronicle less

hallinanvote002_bw.jpg San Francisco district attorney Terrance Hallinan voted downtown Tuesday. He took his daughter Vivian, 10 years, to the polling place. Here the two talked with the press after casting ... more

Photo: BRANT WARD

Photo: BRANT WARD

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hallinanvote002_bw.jpg San Francisco district attorney Terrance Hallinan voted downtown Tuesday. He took his daughter Vivian, 10 years, to the polling place. Here the two talked with the press after casting their vote on Jones Street. BRANT WARD / The Chronicle less

hallinanvote002_bw.jpg San Francisco district attorney Terrance Hallinan voted downtown Tuesday. He took his daughter Vivian, 10 years, to the polling place. Here the two talked with the press after casting ... more

Photo: BRANT WARD

HALLINAN: A man at odds with authority

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Terence Hallinan is the only prosecutor in the nation who had a handful of supporters smoking "medicinal" marijuana outside his campaign office.

Their mere presence on election night highlighted the vast differences between Hallinan and criminal justice establishment.

He was the only district attorney in the state to endorse a measure legalizing marijuana for medical use. And he did the unthinkable for a prosecutor when he went after the San Francisco police chief and his top brass, charging them with felonies.

He also surprised the public when his office secured a short-lived second- degree murder conviction in a high-profile dog mauling case.

Some think him a visionary. Others call him a buffoon. But election returns showed that the public was ready for a new top prosecutor in San Francisco. The district attorney, nicknamed "Kayo" from his days as a boxer, got pounded by challenger Kamala Harris.

Hallinan said he was ready to take on a new challenge after eight years as district attorney and planned to go into private practice with his son, who just passed the bar. He said besides being a gentleman farmer in Petaluma, he would do criminal defense work and personal-injury law.

"I'm proud of my eight years in office," he said. "I think we put together the best district attorney's office in the United States. We changed the way people look at the criminal justice system." Throughout his 67 years, Hallinan has always seemed to be at odds with authority.

He often feuded with cops, cursing then-Chief Fred Lau and saying too many investigations were "sloppy."

"He comes from an adversarial background, and he never really learned how to change once he became D.A," said former Public Defender Jeff Brown.

In February, Hallinan turned the Hall of Justice upside down by obtaining indictments against 10 police officers including Chief Earl Sanders, Assistant Chief Alex Fagan Sr. and two other deputy chiefs. Sanders and Fagan were accused of conspiring to obstruct justice after Fagan's son and two other rookie cops allegedly beat up two men in an off-duty drunken rampage after demanding that one victim surrender his bag of beef fajitas.

After 12 tense days, Hallinan dropped the charges against Sanders and Fagan Sr. In April, a judge tossed the charges against the rest of the top brass.

His proudest moment as district attorney was the prosecution of Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, two San Francisco lawyers, whose Presa Canario dogs mauled lacrosse coach Diane Whipple to death. The office got a second-degree murder conviction against Knoller, which was later tossed out by the judge. Knoller and Noel were both convicted of manslaughter.

Hallinan came from an illustrious -- and rich -- left-wing political family. Father Vincent Hallinan was a famous lawyer who ran for president with the Progressive Party, defended labor leader Harry Bridges on perjury charges and was jailed once for an income tax conviction.

Growing up in a 22-room mansion in Ross, "Kayo" Hallinan got into numerous scrapes with the law during his teenage years and was arrested on assault-and-battery charges, for strong-armed robbery and for fleeing police across state lines. When he was 17, he was made a ward of the juvenile court after numerous brawls.

Hallinan probably spent more time behind bars than any prosecutor in the state. As a college student he was beaten or arrested 16 times at civil rights demonstrations in Mississippi and the Bay Area. He was also arrested in 1964 for leading a fair hiring protest at San Francisco's auto row.

But he cleaned up his act at UC Berkeley. He channeled his aggressions into the ring, starring on Cal's boxing team. He just missed qualifying for the 1960 U.S. Olympic Team, which included Cassius Clay.

At Berkeley, Hallinan also kept up his family tradition of radical politics, joining many demonstrations and protests.

After he graduated from the UC's Hastings College of the Law in 1965, the State Bar refused Hallinan admission, saying he lacked "good moral character."

That decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court, and in 1967 he began a flamboyant legal career, specializing in the defense of drug users and imprisoned soldiers over the next 21 years, until he was elected the Board of Supervisors in 1988.